Understanding Plugin Maintenance in Canvas

Last updated: November 5, 2026

Plugins installed on your Canvas instance fall into three maintenance categories, depending on who is responsible for their ongoing maintenance and support.

  1. Canvas-managed: Officially maintained and supported by Canvas.

  2. Customer-managed: Maintained by your organization.

  3. Partner-managed

    1. Third-party integration vendor-managed: Maintained by the vendor providing an integration with Canvas.

    2. Third-party developer-managed: Maintained by an external developer or development partner.

In Canvas Platform, each installed plugin is labeled by who maintains it: Canvas-managed, Partner-managed, Yours (customer-managed), or Another organization. The Plugin Catalog's Maintained by filter calls partner plugins Partner-maintained.

Canvas-managed plugins

A plugin is Canvas-managed when both conditions are met:

  • It is part of the official set of plugins Canvas owns and maintains.

  • Your installed copy matches a version released by Canvas.

For Canvas-managed plugins, Canvas is responsible for maintaining compatibility with Canvas SDK releases for supported plugin versions, fixing defects, and providing support for questions or issues.

2. Customer-managed plugins

A plugin is customer-managed when your organization is responsible for its ongoing maintenance.

This includes:

  • Plugins developed by your team. Canvas Platform labels these Yours when they are published from your organization's repository.

  • Canvas-managed plugins that your organization has modified.

  • Plugins Canvas built specifically for your organization.

  • Other Canvas-developed plugins that are not part of the official Canvas-managed set.

For customer-managed plugins, your organization is responsible for managing the plugin's code and deciding when changes are made, maintaining compatibility with new Canvas SDK releases, and fixing defects and testing changes before deployment. Your organization can maintain these plugins internally or work with an external developer.

3. Partner-managed plugins

Canvas Platform labels a plugin Partner-managed when a Canvas certified partner publishes it from its own organization. A plugin shared with you by any other organization is labeled Another organization. A developer working in your organization's repository publishes as your organization, so those plugins show Yours.

Third-party integration vendor-managed plugins

These plugins are maintained by vendors that integrate their products or services with Canvas.

For vendor-managed plugins, the vendor is responsible for ongoing maintenance according to its agreement with your organization. This may include:

  • Maintaining compatibility with Canvas SDK releases.

  • Fixing defects in the integration.

  • Providing technical support for the integration unless otherwise specified.

Third-party developer-managed plugins

These plugins are built and maintained by external developers or development partners.

For developer-managed plugins, the developer's responsibilities are defined by your organization's agreement with them. These may include:

  • Maintaining and updating the plugin's code.

  • Keeping it compatible with Canvas SDK releases.

  • Troubleshooting defects and testing changes before deployment.

If your organization takes over ongoing maintenance, the plugin becomes customer-managed.

Modifying a Canvas-managed plugin

You can customize a Canvas-managed plugin to fit your organization's workflows. However, any modification to the plugin makes it customer-managed, and your organization becomes responsible for ongoing maintenance.

Canvas Platform stops labeling a modified copy Canvas-managed. Its maintainer shows as a dash (Maintainer unknown) until your organization publishes the modified plugin from its own repository. After that, it shows Yours.

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